Covering rock music, as Correspondent James Willwerth discovered on this week's story on Bruce Springsteen, can be almost as exhausting as gigging a round of one-night stands. Based in New York, Willwerth has reported on the multibillion-dollar record business for TIME for several years. It was while working on a cover story on the industry (TIME, Feb. 12, 1973) that Willwerth first heard of Springsteen, then the idol of a small but growing cult. After listening to an acetate pressing of the struggling rock rebel's first album, Willwerth marked Springsteen as a singer to remember.

Partly as a result, Willwerth approached this week's story "expecting quite a bit." His first meeting with Springsteen began after midnight in an Italian restaurant on Manhattan's East Side. The two then drove down the New Jersey Turnpike to the singer's seaside bungalow. Springsteen, who is wary of journalists and normally reticent, began to open up during the ride. "Somehow the driving seemed to release something," Willwerth reports. "We talked about his family, his music, his early bar-hopping band days, the fame that is catching up with him for good and bad." Interrupted only for forays to Springsteen's rapidly depleted refrigerator, the interview stretched through a pale Atlantic dawn. Then it was back on the road. In three almost sleepless days, Willwerth monitored Springsteen and his E Street Band through their smash opening at L.A.'s showcase Sunset Strip theater, the Roxy. "It was a good education," he recalls, "in the life and times of a road musician."

Meanwhile, in New York, Reporter-Researcher Jean Vallely and Staff Writer Joan Downs traced Springsteen's often difficult career. Downs, who wrote our first story on Springsteen (TIME, April 1, 1974), interviewed legendary Music Man John Hammond. Vallely dug for Springsteen's musical inspirations in the dingy ambiance of his adopted home town, Asbury Park, N.J. She visited the boardwalk haunts where Springsteen "hung out" penniless only a few years ago She also encountered old Springsteen sidekicks, whose names have been woven into his lyrics. One 4 1/2hour interview with Southside Johnny began cautiously but ended with a walk down Memory Lane to take a look at Madame Marie's, a fortunetelling parlor that also figures in Springsteen's music. "The whole scene was eerie," Vallely says, "like the stage set for an episode of Twilight Zone. I loved it." The 'final story, edited by Martha Duffy, was written by Associate Editor Jay Cocks, who regularly reviews new movies but coveted this writing assignment as an early Springsteen fan.

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